A first-rate outing in a consistently enthralling series.
The fourth entry in Hardt’s (Undaunted, 2018, etc.) erotic supernatural saga finds a vampire struggling to control the darkness within himself as he and his human lover search for missing friends and family.
Lately, Dante Gabriel has felt a dark energy pursuing him, but he’s come to realize that he is that darkness. However, the ever present ghost of the vampire’s father, Julian, convinces him that he can learn to control his inner evil. Dante believes that his greatest asset in this task is Erin Hamilton, the woman he loves and with whom he shares a blood bond—one so strong that he may not be able to live without her, and vice versa. Dante regularly consumes Erin’s blood for his sustenance and their sexual gratification. Now, he begins experimenting with BDSM in the bedroom—a riding crop is involved—as a way to embrace his dark energy without allowing it to take over. Meanwhile, some of couple’s loved ones have gone missing, including Erin’s best friend, Lucy; Dante’s pregnant sister, Emilia; and his uncle (and Julian’s twin), Brae. Dante’s cousin, River, and Erin’s brother, Jay, who are partner detectives, aid in the couple’s search, but they believe that answers may be found in the seemingly untranslatable Vampyre Texts. Dante’s paternal grandfather, Bill, knows the book’s secrets, but he’s inexplicably mum, and finding another copy is an exhausting task. It’s soon apparent that the being who’s responsible for people going missing is also leading rogue vampires who’ve targeted Erin. That leader is likely the same female vampire who, for a decade, held Dante captive for unclear reasons. Hardt’s latest installment shows some definite character and plot evolution. Over the course of the series, Dante and Erin’s sex has progressively intensified, particularly in Dante’s aggressive demands. But this book has added new suspense, as there’s a strong possibility that he could lose control and hurt Erin (without her permission). Dante also shows frightening signs of an elitist mentality; for the first time, he may see vampires as superior to humans. The mystery proceeds well; the investigating group identifies at least one of the rogue vampires, and Erin finds a prime suspect for the vampire boss. Dante’s former captor has been an enigma since the series’ beginning; this time, the author treats her readers to a big reveal, although this is most certainly not the final series installment. Hardt also centers on her characters’ human traits, eschewing vampire conventions such as immortality and lethal sunlight, but her narrative makes sure to showcase other supernatural elements. Dante, for example, continues to gain new powers, and Julian possesses an ability that could have a serious impact on the world at large. As in preceding books, the plot maintains a brisk, steady momentum courtesy of Hardt’s condensed descriptions and rapid-fire dialogue. At one point, for instance, Dante equates Erin’s “irresistible” scent with a bevy of images and senses: “Dark coffee, dark chocolate, the richest, darkest blackberry, the richest, darkest Merlot.”
A first-rate outing in a consistently enthralling series.Pub Date: Jan. 29, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64263-085-5
Page Count: 382
Publisher: Waterhouse Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally...
Yale’s secret societies hide a supernatural secret in this fantasy/murder mystery/school story.
Most Yale students get admitted through some combination of impressive academics, athletics, extracurriculars, family connections, and donations, or perhaps bribing the right coach. Not Galaxy “Alex” Stern. The protagonist of Bardugo’s (King of Scars, 2019, etc.) first novel for adults, a high school dropout and low-level drug dealer, Alex got in because she can see dead people. A Yale dean who's a member of Lethe, one of the college’s famously mysterious secret societies, offers Alex a free ride if she will use her spook-spotting abilities to help Lethe with its mission: overseeing the other secret societies’ occult rituals. In Bardugo’s universe, the “Ancient Eight” secret societies (Lethe is the eponymous Ninth House) are not just old boys’ breeding grounds for the CIA, CEOs, Supreme Court justices, and so on, as they are in ours; they’re wielders of actual magic. Skull and Bones performs prognostications by borrowing patients from the local hospital, cutting them open, and examining their entrails. St. Elmo’s specializes in weather magic, useful for commodities traders; Aurelian, in unbreakable contracts; Manuscript goes in for glamours, or “illusions and lies,” helpful to politicians and movie stars alike. And all these rituals attract ghosts. It’s Alex’s job to keep the supernatural forces from embarrassing the magical elite by releasing chaos into the community (all while trying desperately to keep her grades up). “Dealing with ghosts was like riding the subway: Do not make eye contact. Do not smile. Do not engage. Otherwise, you never know what might follow you home.” A townie’s murder sets in motion a taut plot full of drug deals, drunken assaults, corruption, and cover-ups. Loyalties stretch and snap. Under it all runs the deep, dark river of ambition and anxiety that at once powers and undermines the Yale experience. Alex may have more reason than most to feel like an imposter, but anyone who’s spent time around the golden children of the Ivy League will likely recognize her self-doubt.
With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally dazzling sequels.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-31307-2
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.
Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.
In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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